Episode 101: Pie-lette
}} Ned is a young man with a special gift -- he can bring a dead person back to life with a touch. But there's a catch -- if the person stays alive for more than a minute, then someone else will die. Also, a second touch will bring death, forever. Ned discovers his gift as a child when he brings his dog, Digby, back to life. When Ned's mother dies, he brings her back to life -- but this kills the father of his childhood sweetheart, Chuck. Another touch kills Ned's mother. Both left alone, Ned is sent to boarding school, and Chuck lives with her aunts, the reclusive Lily and Vivian. Ned and Chuck share a first kiss, and are then parted. Nineteen years, thirty-four weeks, one day and fifty-nine minutes later, Ned owns a bakery, the Pie Hole. He also moonlights as the partner of Emerson Cod, a private investigator who discovers Ned's secret gift. Emerson realizes that they can turn a profit solving murders by reviving the murder victim and asking who killed them. Meanwhile, Ned's employee and neighbor, Olive Snook, has a crush on the pie maker -- but Ned has learned not to get attached to anybody, and he wards off Olive's advances. Everything changes when Ned learns that Chuck has been murdered on a cruise ship. He and Emerson travel to Ned's hometown, Couer d'Couers, to solve the case. Ned revives Chuck, and she's thrilled to be reunited with her old friend. She doesn't know who killed her, and Ned only has a minute to return her to the grave. But he can't bear to kill her, and the funeral director, Lawrence Schatz, dies instead. Ned hides Chuck in the coffin, and secretly arranges to rescue her after the funeral. Chuck stays in Ned's apartment -- but despite the romantic feelings that they share, they can't ever touch again. Chuck is happy to make a fresh start on her life, and she approaches Ned and Emerson with a plan to solve her own murder and collect the reward. They go to Boutique Travel Travel Boutique, where manager Deedee Duffield offered Chuck a free cruise in exchange for transporting a pair of plaster monkeys. When they arrive, Deedee has been killed as well. Ned brings Deedee back to life, but she dies again before telling them who killed her. Ned, Emerson and Chuck realize that if the plaster monkeys were in Chuck's possession on the cruise ship, then they would have been sent to her next of kin -- Aunt Vivian and Aunt Lily. They go to Vivian and Lily's house, to find the monkeys before the killer does. Ned and Emerson talk to Chuck's aunts, ex-synchronized swimmers with matching social phobias. Chuck has to stay out of sight -- but she's determined to help, and she climbs up the back wall to her bedroom. Lily goes upstairs to collect the monkeys for Ned, and is attacked by the killer. Ned is also attacked, and Chuck rescues him. Lily survives her attack, and shoots the killer dead. Ned and Chuck discover that the plaster monkeys were actually made of gold. Lily and Vivian collect the reward for catching Chuck's killer, and decide to leave the house for the first time in years. Ned, Chuck and Emerson agree to work together -- but despite their yearnings, Ned and Chuck can never touch again. Cast Regulars *Lee Pace: Ned *Anna Friel: Charlotte "Chuck" Charles *Chi McBride: Emerson Cod *Jim Dale: The Narrator *Ellen Greene: Aunt Vivian *Swoosie Kurtz: Aunt Lily *Kristin Chenoweth: Olive Snook Co-starring *Patrick Breen *Field Cate as young Ned *Ted Garcia as news anchor *Tina Gloss as Ned's mother *Brad Grunberg as Lawrence Schatz *Sammi Hanratty as young Chuck *Geraud Moncure as news anchor *Leyna Nguyen as newscaster *Sy Richardson as the coroner *Julie Wittner as Deedee }} 101 __NOEDITSECTION__